


these bloody delights

by Afterword



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Best Friends, Blood Drinking, Blood Kink, Friends to Lovers, Human/Vampire Relationship, Jeno is a late bloomer vampire, M/M, Vampire Bites, Vampire Turning, jaemin helps him feed for the first time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:01:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27249241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Afterword/pseuds/Afterword
Summary: When Jeno finds out he’s turning into a vampire he decides there’s no one better to help him with his newfound thirst than his best friend, who likes to be bitten.In euphoria, he forgets that there’s a reason why Jaemin likes to be bitten, and in that reason, a line best friends shouldn’t cross.
Relationships: Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Comments: 17
Kudos: 332





	1. a new appetite

Jeno is scrolling through his Twitter feed, splayed across the couch. Although his eyes are on the frivolous thoughts of random people on the app, his mind has drifted down to his foot as it keeps tapping against Mark’s thigh. 

He’s just waiting for the moment when his friend will finally snap at him, driven to such boredom that irritating Mark seems like the most fun he can have. But Mark doesn’t pay him any attention - in fact, his friend looks like he could fall asleep at any moment now. He’s supposed to be watching tv, yet there’s been nothing but commercials playing for a few minutes now, so Jeno’s pretty sure Mark is sleeping with his eyes open at this point.

_“Are you between the ages of 16 to 19?”_ a female voice asks on the tv. As she keeps going, Jeno throws his phone to the side and turns to the big window behind him. “ _Have you noticed a progressive loss of appetite? Pain in your gums? Have you had any dreams and/or thoughts about drinking blood lately?”_

Jeno only half listens to the commercial as he looks out the window, trailing after the tiny figures of people outside. From the 15th floor, they look more like faceless black dots, and he wonders if Jaemin is one of them.

“ _If the answer to three or more questions above is yes, then you might be turning into a Vampire.”_

It’s getting late, Jeno can tell, even though from their apartment it always looks like the sun sets too early. He’s been living here with Jaemin long enough to learn what the sky looks like when it’s late. Jaemin’s photoshoot should have ended a while ago already, he should be home any minute now. Maybe then both he and Mark will be saved from this boredom - Jaemin always finds a way to keep them entertained.

_“Call XXX XXX XXX for more infor--”_

The tv lady gets cut off mid-sentence by Mark, who switches the channel to an NBA Game.

“Thought you’d fallen asleep,” Jeno remarks, kicking him just to rile him up. Mark grits his teeth at him, but the way his eyebrows draw a circle over his forehead just makes Jeno laugh.

“Thought you were supposed to be writing your thesis,” is Mark’s rebuttal.

“So are you, though?” 

Mark shrugs. “By the way, did you hear the news?” He says out of the blue, turning to Jeno on the couch.

“What news?” Jeno yawns.

“They closed down a club like, two blocks away from here last night.” 

As he says this, the front door opens. Both of them snap their heads toward it, only to watch as Jaemin comes in looking like a runway model who’s just taken a trip to the supermarket. He’s got his arms full of grocery bags over the nicest looking suit Jeno remembers ever seeing him wear - baby blue, fitting him as if it was tailored to his body. He has his almost white blonde hair styled back, his cheeks rosy from makeup.

“Hey Jaemin,” Jeno greets with a smile. 

Jaemin returns the gesture in kind.

“Did you go to the supermarket looking like that?” Mark asks.

Jaemin grins at them as he sets the bags on the kitchen counter, brushing a nonexistent strand of hair behind his ear in fake shiness.

“Looking like what?” 

“Like… all dolled up,” Mark speaks at the same time as Jeno, who says “Like you came straight from a photo shoot.” 

Jaemin giggles at both of them.

“I did come straight from a photo shoot, and our fridge is empty, as always. You never want to get groceries, Jeno, so what else should I do?” 

Jeno looks back down at his phone to avoid answering.

“They gave you those clothes?” Mark asks.

“I wish! Don’t they look so good on me?” Jaemin steps further into the room to show them the full outfit, striking a few exaggerated poses while he’s at it.

Jeno would normally be curling into himself at this point to avoid having to see the ridiculousness of his best friend’s shenanigans, but for some reason, he’s actually curious to look this time.

“It brings out your neck,” he speaks without meaning to, his ears turning red when he catches himself too late to take the compliment back.

Jaemin raises his eyebrows at him and he can feel Mark staring at him with suspicion too.

“What? It’s true!” Jeno opts for fake nonchalance, shrugging to emphasize it. “It makes your neck look long and nice.”

Jaemin looks away from him and stumbles a bit on his way back to stand behind the kitchen counter. For some reason, they sink into a heavy silence, only broken when Mark clears his throat.

“Anyways, I was just gonna start telling Jeno about this thing when you came in, Nana.”

“What happened?” Jaemin is still not making eye contact with any of them, focusing instead on taking the groceries out of the bags.

It’s only when Jeno gets up from the couch to help that Jaemin looks at him again, offering him a committed smile and mouthing a _thank you._

“They shut down the club you used to go to with Jaehyun and Johnny all the time,” Mark says, addressing Jaemin. He’s leaning over the back of the couch, which allows him to directly face both Jaemin and Jeno in the kitchen.

“They closed it? But that club was the only one that still played decent music!” Jaemin cries, and yet Jeno can tell the surprise in his voice is fake.

“Yeah. The interesting part is _why_ they closed it, though. You sure you didn’t hear about this, Nana?”

The way Mark is speaking as if Jeno isn’t even part of the conversation, and how his seagull eyebrows are quirked in a frown, has Jeno tasting something bitter in his tongue.

Jaemin, currently storing groceries in their fridge with his back to both Mark and Jeno, makes a negative sound in response. 

“Well, apparently they were running an illegal blood parlor in the basement.” 

“A what?” Jeno asks.

“A blood parlor. You seriously don’t know what that is?”

Jeno shakes his head. The term is familiar to him, but he’s never cared to look into it. Maybe he should have kept his curiosity for himself, though, because the way Jaemin’s back has become stiff makes his stomach sink.

“It’s a place where humans go to get fucked by vampires while they suck their blood,” Mark explains, a disgusted tone in his voice, and just like that Jeno knows what has his best friend so uncomfortable. “That’s obviously illegal since it’s fucking dangerous as hell to have a vampire suck your blood unsupervised. Not to mention, getting off on that is just… _immoral.”_

Mark fake shudders.

Jeno hums as he takes the information in, doing his best to appear neutral to the information. He pretends to forget where the beans are supposed to be stored so he can get close to Jaemin and place a reassuring hand on the small of his back.

Jaemin searches for something in his eyes, Jeno doesn’t know quite what it might be, but he makes an effort to place all the respect and adoration he feels towards his best friend in that short second.

“Your existence itself is immoral, _Markus_. Get off that couch and help us out. It’s the least you can do if you’re gonna spend your unemployed life eating our food.”

Jeno can’t help but laugh as Mark runs over to the kitchen like a child scolded by their parents. One look to the side and he catches Jaemin mirroring him, a more eased expression on his face now - as if none of that hurt him in the first place.

Jeno knows better than to believe it. Too many years spent beside Jaemin as his best friend has taught him the hard way that when it comes to pretending he’ hasn’t been hurt, there’s no one quite as skilled as Jaemin. Yet, it still gives Jeno some kind of peace of mind to see him smiling again, like a fool falling for the same trick over and over again.

\--

Mark’s already long gone and Jeno’s still at the dinner table trying to finish the food Jaemin cooked for them. He’s only half listening as the model tells him about what happened earlier at his photoshoot, much more concerned with making sure Jaemin doesn’t realize he doesn’t want to eat than with actually paying attention.

The thing is, Jeno is never one to lose his appetite, especially not when the food he has the pleasure to eat is Jaemin’s. Nine times out of ten, whatever Jaemin cooks has him scraping his plate. But today, every bite tastes like sand on his tongue, and he has to fight the urge to gag. 

“What’s wrong, Jeno? You’re not hungry?” Jaemin asks, most likely seeing right through him as he always does, as someone who’s known him for so many years would. 

Jeno is caught as he’s chewing on a particularly tasteless bite of meat, so he makes Jaemin wait while he agonizes over chewing it.

“It’s weird,” he says, and Jaemin leans in immediately, arching a curious eyebrow. Jeno can’t help but notice how the muscles of Jaemin’s neck move under his skin from this close a distance. He finds himself licking his lips without meaning to. 

“What’s weird?” Jaemin prods.

“Just…” Jeno looks down at his almost full plate. “Your food is delicious, but I can’t taste it. Maybe I’m getting sick.”

_Have you noticed a progressive loss of appetite?_ the voice from the commercial playing on tv earlier comes back to him at that moment. 

He brushes it off with a snort.

Jaemin immediately puts a hand on his forehead.

“You’re not hot, though, so no fever,” he says. “You're actually quite cold.” 

“If I wasn’t way past the age of turning, I’d think I was becoming a vampire.”

“You’re about 5 years too late for that,” Jaemin snorts.

“Maybe I just lost my appetite after listening to the stupid shit Mark was saying earlier.”

Jaemin puts some distance between them at that, busying himself with flattening the wrinkles in the tablecloth.

“If he knew about you, he wouldn’t say it,” Jeno says softly.

“Now you’re just saying stuff to make me feel better. You know that’s not true, Jeno. It’s fine, though. Mark doesn’t need to approve of everything I do.”

Jeno nods with a grimace. It’s not like what Jaemin is saying is wrong, it just seems unfair to him regardless.

“He’s not the only one who thinks like that, anyway. Most humans do.”

“I don’t,” Jeno deadpans, and the commitment in his voice brings a smile to Jaemin’s eyes. 

“I know, Jeno, and that’s all I need. As long as you’re on my side I can take what everybody else says about _vamp tramps_ like me.”

Jeno grits his teeth when he hears the slur slide off Jaemin’s tongue.

“You never told me why you do it,” Jeno says, searching Jaemin’s face as the other looks away, reluctant to give him an answer. He doesn’t need words to be able to read his best friend’s silence, so he changes the subject:

“I’m sorry about not eating your food like always, by the way.” 

Jaemin waves him off, finally standing up from the table.

“You know I love it, right?” Jeno watches as Jaemin circles the table just to brush a strand of hair out of his face with a smile.

“Sure I do,” he says. “You don’t have to worry about it. There’ll be many more chances for me to feed you in the future.”


	2. a vampire is born

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeno tastes his first drop of blood

Things have been weird for Jeno lately. 

It’s been two days since he last ate anything with a minimum of satisfaction, and Jeno is starting to worry.

The weirdest thing is, the reason why he can’t eat isn’t that he isn’t hungry. In fact, what worries him the most is that he _is hungry_ \- he’s starving -, and yet, he can’t seem to get any food down his throat.

It’s the second night in a row that Jeno’s returning from the kitchen without biting into anything, and this time he ends up walking into Jaemin’s room instead of his. He’s not sure why he does it. Maybe because he’s looking to ease his mind, or maybe just because that’s what his feet do when he lets them work on autopilot - they look for Jaemin.

He finds the other inside his walk-in closet, wearing a white sleeveless undershirt while looking through his clothes with his back turned to the door. 

“You’re going out?” Jeno asks, announcing his presence.

“Jesus Christ, you scared me!” Jaemin cries, holding onto his heart as if to prevent it from jumping out of his chest. 

At first, Jeno’s only watching with amusement as Jaemin calms down from the scare. But at some point, his eyes wander down to the bite mark on Jaemin’s naked arm, and then the one below his clavicle, too.

 _Who was the lucky vampire who got to mark you?_ Jeno asks himself. _Did you let the same one do it to you twice?_

_Are you going out to meet them again?_

“What do you think?” Jaemin brings him out of his head, showing off the outfit he’s picked: a silk baby pink dress shirt tucked into his white dress pants. “Is this look _Jeno Lee Approved_?”

Jeno pretends he hasn’t been watching all this time and makes a show of giving him a once over. He’s about to reply when Jaemin speaks again:

“Does this one make my neck look nice too? This time, I actually want to show it off.”

Jeno’s guts twist. He narrows his eyes and moves closer to his best friend, until he can brush the silk cleavage a little to the side and run his fingers over the bite mark there.

“Why do you want to show off your neck?” His voice lowers, and he swears he can feel Jaemin’s heartbeat quicken under his touch. “You never let them bite you there.” 

Jeno’s gaze stays focused on the bite mark, too afraid of what he might find if he lets himself meet Jaemin’s eyes after having stepped on a line he’s never come close to before.

Although he’s aware of Jaemin’s night endeavors, he’s not privy to the details - never has been curious enough to ask, or maybe feared what answers he might get. So why is he trying to start now? What’s changed?

Jaemin envelops his hand around Jeno’s where it’s still touching his vampire bite mark. He pulls it away from him but doesn’t let go. Instead, he holds it in the space between them with a firm grip.

Through the silence, Jeno dares to look up. 

He’s always known his best friend is beautiful, has witnessed many men and women alike fall head over heels for Jaemin. All this time, he’s simply been aware of the fact, the same way one is aware that the sun is above them without having to look up at it. 

It’s a little different, that night. That night, Jeno stops and admires. He’s fixated on how the silver necklace around Jaemin’s neck outlines the curves of his collarbone so well, how his skin looks so smooth, like a sweet white canvas where Jeno might create art - with a kiss, with his teeth. If he could only bite into it, make the skin tear, paint it with a drop of blood--

“ _What?”_

“I said, you’re ruining my outfit, dumbass,” Jaemin says, and Jeno realizes that somewhere along the way he’s grabbed a fistful of Jaemin’s shirt in his hand.

After apologizing, Jeno lets his best friend finish getting ready in silence, mulling over his weird train of thought.

_Have you noticed a progressive loss of appetite?_

_Have you had any dreams and/or thoughts about drinking blood lately?_

The commercial lady’s voice echoes in his head again. That’s already two questions he can answer with a yes, and the notion that he’s even entertaining this thought to begin with has him shuddering in place.

It can’t be. 

He’s 23 years old, which means he’s 5 years past the regular age a human might turn into a vampire. 

There’s no way.

No way.

Jeno blames what he does next on the hint of doubt that still plagues his mind. He takes a step closer to Jaemin as he’s hooking an earring around his earlobe and asks: 

“Can I come with you tonight?”

Jaemin turns around in a flash.

“Are you serious?”

“Y-yeah,” Jeno’s voice fails him.

“You know where I’m going right?”

Jeno nods.

“And you still want to come?”

Another nod.

“Okay then. Go put something nice on and meet me at the door in 20 minutes.”

 _Something nice_ for Jeno is his only pair of skinny jeans and a plain black blouse - because once Jaemin told him that when all else fails you, a black outfit will never. 

When he meets Jaemin again by the front door, he looks at him for approval. Jaemin gives it to him in the form of a slight nod.

“Did you put on a turtleneck on purpose?” 

Jeno shrugs, and Jaemin is locking the door behind him when he says, “Maybe.”

\--

They meet Johnny and Jaehyun while waiting in line to get into the club. Once inside, Jeno can’t help the hint of disappointment that he feels at how normal everything seems to be. Although he’s not sure what he was expecting, it definitely wasn’t for it to look just like any other club he’s been to in the past.

He elbows Jaemin to get his attention and asks, “Are you sure you didn’t just bring me to a normal club?”

“They’re supposed to look normal, Jeno. Blood parlors are illegal, remember?” 

After hearing Jaemin’s explanation, Jeno feels a little silly to not have thought of it before. As he looks around the place that is already too crowded for 1:00 AM, he wonders who in the crowd is a vampire and how many are there. He catches a few people looking their way and immediately averts his eyes. 

At that moment, Jaemin leans over, and Jeno catches the first trace of an exquisite scent. It’s so faint that Jeno isn’t sure it isn’t just his mind playing tricks on him.

“Look over there,” Jaemin says, nodding towards somewhere to their right. When Jeno follows his best friend’s lead he sees a door with a label saying STAFF ONLY in big bold letters and a menacing looking bouncer in front of it. “That’s where the fun stuff happens.”

Jeno’s still staring at the door when Johnny taps him on the shoulder and he realizes they’ve made it all the way to the bar. 

“You’re taking a Vampire Bite too, right?” Johnny asks with a smirk, and he doesn’t even wait for Jeno’s response before he’s shouting to the bartender, ordering 4 Vampire Bite shots.

 _Oh_ , _that kind of vampire bite._

The blood-red liquid is bitter on his tongue, but it doesn’t burn or make his brain fuzzy and heavy like he expects it to.

_Weird._

They find a table close to the bar to catch up for a while, as well as one can catch up in a club. Johnny tells them crazy stories about what he’s been up to lately, and Jeno almost forgets where he is. 

The way Johnny has to shout over the music while retelling his stories makes everything he says even funnier. Jaemin is laughing into Jeno’s chest, and for the second time, Jeno catches that same scent - stronger this time. He tastes it on the tip of his tongue, so sweet it almost burns. 

He takes a deep breath in and the burn goes all the way up to his stomach. Oddly, he finds that he likes the burn. He’s about to take a lungful of it again when Jaemin is taken away from him. 

Jeno first notices the space where Jaemin should be, and only a beat later he looks up and sees the tall guy with dark eyes who stole his best friend’s attention from him. He’s whispering something into Jaemin’s ear and Jeno can no longer hear Johnny or the music, only the loud thump of a staggering heartbeat.

“You’re awfully shy today, Nana,” Johnny comments when Jaemin brushes the guy off, watching him disappear into the crowd. “Usually you would’ve strayed from us a _long_ time ago.”

“But Jeno’s here today, Johnny,” Jaehyun smirks. From the corner of his eye, Jeno catches him kicking Johnny’s leg as if both of them share a secret.

“You don’t need to stay because of me,” Jeno doesn’t exactly meet Jaemin’s eyes as he speaks, afraid that his best friend will see something in them that will guilt him into staying.

Jaemin narrows his eyes at the other two sitting across from them at the table. He hesitates in his seat for what seems like forever. When he finally does walk away, Jeno’s gaze follows after him until he’s swallowed by the crowd on the dance floor. 

“Have you ever asked him how he found out he was into... _this_?” Johnny asks him, a challenging look in his eyes. 

“No, I never asked about anything.”

“Well, I think you should try to do it someday,” Johnny gives him a pat on his thigh before getting up from his seat. “You might be surprised.”

Jaehyun gets up after him and soon enough they’re both heading toward the dancefloor together. After that, it’s only Jeno sitting by the table alone.

He can’t help but look for a snow-blonde head of hair in the crowd, perhaps hating himself a little in the process, for being so interested in his best friend all of a sudden. 

_Why am I here, really?_ he asks himself, and at that moment he finds Jaemin, wrapped in the arms of the tall man from before, his head thrown back to rest on the stranger’s shoulder while they sway to the silk rhythm of the music.

His guts twist again. A voice inside his head tells him that he shouldn’t be watching Jaemin, tries to remind him that it’s not his place to wonder if the way Jaemin is showing off his neck means he’ll let that man - that _vampire_ \- bite him there. 

He’s burning. All the way up his spine and up to his throat, he’s burning. But this time, it doesn’t feel good. On the contrary, what once was delicious now is so intense that he’s overtaken by nausea. He can’t tell if it’s a scent that is attacking him from all sides, or if it’s the sight in front of him that is making him sick. All he knows is that the latter shouldn’t be a problem - it shouldn’t make him sick to imagine Jaemin letting a stranger bite his neck. But, somehow, it’s all he can think about.

Bile rises inside him, and Jeno fears he might just throw up right there on the dancefloor.

Jaemin’s eyes find his just before he takes off running to the bathroom.

\--

“Jeno?”

Jaemin’s voice echoes in the bathroom over the muffled beat of the music. Jeno is crouching over the filthy toilet inside one of the stalls, waiting for something to come out.

Jaemin keeps calling after him and knocking on random stall doors. He gets a series of grunts and shouts in response before finally knocking on the right door and rushing right inside. 

He crouches behind Jeno, squeezing his shoulder with his hand.

“What happened?” The worry in his voice twists Jeno’s insides even more.

“Just felt like throwing up,” he shakes his head, his face still buried in the toilet. It’s easier to breathe inside the bathroom, but he’s still not sure he won’t throw up at any second.

The question is, what would he even throw up? He hasn’t eaten in more than two days now.

“We should go home,” Jaemin declares, taking out his phone from his pocket to open the Uber app. In his attempt to stop him, Jeno ends up pushing the phone out of Jaemin’s hand and causing it to fall on the filthy bathroom floor.

“What the fuck, Jeno?” Jaemin cries, picking his phone back up and trying to wipe it on his trousers.

“You stay, I’ll go.” 

Jaemin scoffs at him.

“No way I’m letting you go anywhere alone in that state.”

“But…” Jeno trails off, finally turning away from the toilet to look at Jaemin. Even in that situation, his best friend looks beautiful, eyes round and shining with concern for him. “What about that guy? You were having fun.”

“If you think I’d let my Jeno go home alone feeling sick just to get with some random hot vampire, you don’t really know me.”

Jeno can’t help but smile.

“Your Jeno?”

Jaemin scrunches his nose, a faint pink tint rising in his cheeks. Jeno tastes something bittersweet on his tongue and it doesn’t make him want to throw up this time. 

“I had a bit to drink, leave me alone,” Jaemin takes Jeno’s hand in his and leads him out of the club.

Alcohol or no alcohol, Jeno takes the words and keeps them in a safe place in his memory.

\--

Jaemin never lets go of Jeno’s hand, not even once they’re already in the backseat of the Uber. He takes the middle seat, shoulder to shoulder with his best friend, and every few minutes turns to check if he’s feeling any better.

The answer is yes. Jeno’s been feeling more like himself ever since they stepped out of the club and into the chilly night, the smell of the Han River nearby filling him up instead of that strange overwhelming _something_ that he’d been attacked by inside.

“Do you have a new perfume?” Jeno asks suddenly. Inside the car, it’s like the same scent from before has cleared up and now he can feel it in its purest form and it’s… amazing. He can’t think of a better way to describe it as he’s never smelled something even remotely similar to it. It just makes his whole body burn with pleasure, has him salivating and so, so _hungry._

The weirdest part is that he’s almost sure it’s coming from Jaemin. 

“I put my same old perfume on so long ago I doubt you could still smell it,” His best friend says, eyeing him with a raised brow. “Why?”

Without thinking, Jeno leans in and smells the arch of Jaemin’s neck. He takes a lungful. 

_Oh, it’s definitely coming from you._

“You just smell so fucking good for some reason?” 

“I smell like smoke, Jeno.”

“No, like…” Jeno comes closer, his lips all but grazing Jaemin’s skin. He swallows dry before licking his lips.

 _You’re being weird again,_ a voice at the back of his head says, and that makes him pull away from Jaemin.

“Nevermind.”

The thing is, he can’t focus on anything else anymore after that. All he can focus on is this smell coming from his best friend that has opened his appetite like no food has been able to for the past couple of days. He curls his hands into fists, trying to stop himself from doing _something_ \- he’s not sure what exactly - that his body wants to do.

Jaemin ends up falling asleep against his headrest, his baby pink dress shirt looser now since he’d unbuttoned it further, showing a little bit of his shoulder.

Jeno glances at the driver, watches the older man as he takes turns eyeing the road in front of them and the GPS on his phone, paying them no attention. 

Like a magnet, his attention is back on Jaemin soon enough. He’s surprised he’s never noticed Jaemin’s neck was this long before. How did he never notice? Even in the darkness of the car, he can’t see anything else.

“Jaemin?” Jeno whispers, almost buried in Jaemin’s neck before he catches himself. 

Jaemin nuzzles his head deeper in the headrest, showing no signs of consciousness. 

Jeno convinces himself that he can make the most of this moment if he just grazes his lips over Jaemin’s skin. Nobody will ever know, and he will make sure to erase it from his own memory too. He’ll just find out what it feels like, let go of this _need_ that is nagging at him, and then pretend this never happened.

So he does, he opens his mouth ever so slightly and lets his lips graze the skin over the muscle on Jaemin’s neck, his lower lip dragging across it and leaving a trail of saliva behind. It’s like his whole body comes alive after it; as if he’s been dormant all his life and now he’s finally fully awake and _burning_.

But his delight comes to a violent end when he’s struck by a sharp pain in his gums, so awful that it makes his eyes roll back into his head, and he whimpers, reaching to hold his mouth.

The cry wakes Jaemin up on high alert.

“What the-- Jeno? What’s going on? Talk to me, please.”

Jeno keeps whimpering until he feels something pierce through the palm of his hand where it is covering his mouth. 

“What is it?” Jaemin brushes the hair out of Jeno’s face, eyes filled with worry.

“I… don’t… know…”

The only thing he knows is that it hurts more than he’s hurt in a long time and that there’s something foreign in his mouth. Something that shouldn’t be there. 

Slowly, when the pain subsides just a little bit, he takes his hand out of his face to let Jaemin see.

“Fuck,” is the only thing that comes out of his best friend’s mouth when he sees the cause of Jeno’s pain. 

At the same time, Jeno slips his fingers inside his mouth to get a sense of what is happening. What he finds is something razor-sharp which cuts his tongue and draws blood in his mouth. He’s all too keen to swallow it before even realizing what’s actually happening.

It’s his own teeth.

His _fangs._

“Excuse me, sir?” Jaemin addresses the driver. “Can you please pull over?”

The driver nods. “Everything alright, son?”

Jeno whimpers again. 

“Yes. Please just pull over. Right now, sir!”

The urgency in Jaemin’s voice has the driver skidding to an abrupt stop, both of them slamming into the back of their seats in the process. 

Jaemin all but drags Jeno out behind him, the latter still covering his mouth with his hands. He finds them a secluded spot under a thick tall tree to sit for now.

“You’re turning, Jeno,” Jaemin says once they finally settle down, and his voice is hysterical as he states the obvious.

Jeno pulls out his phone and turns on the front camera to see it - see _them_ \- with his own eyes. The sight in front of him gives him chills: it’s not just that he has fangs protruding out of his mouth, but that the skin around his eyes, too, is darker, and he might be seeing things but he swears there are tiny red veins coming out of his iris. 

He doesn’t look like himself.

_I don’t look Human._

“Jeno, you’re...” Jaemin trails off. “How long?”

“How long what?” He snaps, barely able to think.

“How long have you been turning? If your fangs have come out it must have been going on for _at least_ a year. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It hasn’t. I didn’t know. I just knew you smelled really good and I just wanted to… I don’t know. It happened. Right now.”

Jaemin mulls over Jeno’s reply in silence, and the latter takes the time to sneak a glance at himself in the camera again. He wonders if Jaemin is scared of what he looks like right now, what his future will be like as a vampire, how Jaemin will fit in it.

His thoughts are cut by Jaemin’s arms coming up around him and holding him in a hug. The human runs his hands through Jeno’s hair, calming him, anchoring him.

“It’s gonna be okay, Jeno,” he whispers soothingly.

When he pulls away it is to let his eyes wander over Jeno’s face, assessing the changes. Jaemin reaches out with a finger to trace the edges of Jeno’s fangs, and Jeno's fangs sink on it without asking him for permission. Jaemin pulls away with a gasp, both of them staring at the blood coming out of the tiny cut.

What was confusing to him just a few minutes ago is clear as day now: the maddening scent that has been stalking him all night is blood. He’s been smelling blood. 

Jeno is _so_ hungry.

“I’m-- I’m sorry. Oh my god, Jaemin, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to, I--”

“It’s fine, Jen,” Jaemin says, wide eyes softening as they meet Jeno’s again. “This is just so weird. Never in a million years, I thought I would ever see the day _you_ ’d want to bite me.”

Jeno can barely hear him. All his focus is on the drop of blood now sliding down Jaemin’s palm. Maybe it’s the hunger taking control over his body, but he doesn’t even hesitate when he takes Jaemin’s hand in his and sucks the tip of his finger.

The taste is unlike anything he’s ever tried before. It’s like he can taste it with all of his senses at once. Just a drop and his whole insides are exploding. 

For a moment, he thinks he’s let out a moan amid his newfound pleasure, but the sound is not quite like his voice. It’s only when he sees Jaemin with his eyes closed as his head is thrown back that he knows - it was _him_.

The tips of Jaemin’s ears burn red when he comes down from his high and opens his eyes again. It all serves to drive Jeno even more over the edge, because if Jaemin is flustered, then it means his blood is pumping faster, is ringing louder, smelling better.

“Sorry,” Jeno says, and then he notices Jaemin shuffling in his seat and looks down. “Jaemin, are you…”

“Don’t. Don’t you _dare_ say it. Just pretend none of this is happening.” Jaemin whimpers. 

“Someone’s getting too excited….” 

“Fuck you. Oh my god.”

“What’s the big deal? I’ve seen you hard before.” 

“Yeah, but it wasn’t the same.”

“Why not?”

“Because.”

“Because what?”

“Because the other times I wasn’t getting hard because of _you._ ”

_Oh._

A deafening silence falls between them.

Jeno doesn’t know how to reply. How did he not realize it before? It _is_ different this time. There’s nobody else in the picture, no one else getting Jaemin’s attention but him.

Jaemin clears his throat.

“I think you’re turning faster than normal. If that’s the case, then you need to feed as soon as possible or you’ll start to feel sick.”

“I’m hungry.”

Jaemin nods. “We need to get you registered as a new vampire first thing tomorrow. The government will find someone for you to feed on. You’ll be okay, Jeno.”

“Wait,” Jeno says, grabbing Jaemin by the wrist. “The government? Someone? A _stranger_?”

“Yeah, someone who is registered in the system as a donor and getting paid to let you feed on them.”

Jeno’s eyebrows shoot up. “I don’t want to feed on a stranger,” he says, fingers tightening into fists and untightening repeatedly. “Can’t I do it with you?”

Jaemin stares at him for a long moment, his eyes dropping to Jeno’s lips and the hint of his fangs grazing over them.

“We’ve always done everything together. Why can’t we do this too?” Jeno continues, voice getting softer, hands caressing Jaemin’s wrist.

“Trust me, you don’t want to do this with me.” 

“Why wouldn’t I? You smell nice, you taste fucking good from that drop alone, and… you like to be bitten.”

“That’s the problem, Jeno,” Jaemin says, and Jeno can only frown in confusion. “I like it a little too much. I mean, you literally just sucked on a drop of my blood and _look_ at me. I’m your best friend, are you sure you want to see where this will go if we take it any further?”

Jeno takes a moment to consider what his friend is saying. Does he want to see him like that? More than that, does he want to hear Jaemin moaning like that again? Does he want to be the cause of it?

“I’m gonna be very straightforward with you, okay?”

Jeno nods.

“Some people can donate their blood and feel nothing, while others are more sensitive to the experience. I’m one of these _sensitive_ people, you can say. When a vampire feeds on me, it gives me more pleasure than even having sex does. That’s why I go to blood parlors. It feels really fucking good, Jeno.”

Jeno shivers, almost tastes his best friend’s blood on his tongue again. 

“Do you actually have sex when you do it?”

“Sometimes. Not always.”

“Would you let me bite you on your neck?” Jeno surprises himself by asking. 

“Are you really still considering this?”

“I don’t want to do it with a stranger. Much less now that I know how… intense it might get.” Jeno clarifies.

“You’d rather do it with your best friend?”

“Yes. Unless…” Jeno says, getting Jaemin’s attention. “Unless you really don’t want to do it with me. If that’s it then it’s fine, Jaemin.”

“I’ll… I’ll think about it.”

“Tell you what, if you let me feed on you, I’ll take care of your little problem down there. It’s still going strong, isn’t it?”

Jaemin looks down at his crotch, then back at Jeno with a glare. He punches him as hard as he knows he can do it without hurting Jeno. 

“Are you really making that joke right now?”

Jeno chuckles, releasing some of the tension in his shoulders.

“As if I’d let your vampire hungry mouth anywhere near my dick right now.”

“That’s what you say now,” Jeno jokes, wiggling his eyebrows. His gums still hurt like hell, but he’s almost forgotten he’s supposed to be freaking out over being a late bloomer vampire.

A completely different species than human. 

Eternal.


	3. worshipping

It’s Mark’s birthday. 

Between finding out he’s turning into a vampire and keeping his desire for his best friend’s blood under control, Jeno completely forgot about it. 

He’s currently pretending to watch Netflix in the living room while Jaemin is in the kitchen fixing himself something to eat - a salad, _disgusting_ -, when in reality’s more focused on following his best friend’s every move.

“You know staring is rude, right?” Jaemin says without looking up from where he’s cutting perfect slices of tomato on the counter. 

It’s right after he says it that Jeno gets the first hint that someone is approaching. The smell of blood intensifies, and the burn that he’s gotten used to feeling from living with Jaemin becomes too much again.

He snaps his head to the door just a second before the knock. Jaemin jogs up to the door, but when he looks back over his shoulder at Jeno, he finds the new vampire with his fangs out again.

“Go hide in my room. We’ll figure it out, okay?”

Jeno runs off to Jaemin’s room, almost seeing red. He locks himself in and stays by the door, listening to Jaemin talk to his friends in the living room, the excited cheers, and Donghyuck and Renjun already at each other’s throats. 

Jaemin comes over a few minutes later.

“I completely forgot today was Mark’s birthday dinner,” Jaemin says as soon as he’s in the room. “How did I forget?” He continues, more to himself than anything else.

“How do I get the fangs back _in_? Tell me you know how to.” 

Jaemin takes a moment to think about it, most likely scanning his brain for any recollection of anything that might help Jeno with his struggle.

“They can’t know yet. I’m not ready to tell them. I need more time,” Jeno continues, pacing back and forth in Jaemin’s room.

“I think they come out when you’re getting ready to feed, right? Or at least, when your body wants to feed. Kind of like how you get hard when your body wants to fuck.”

Jeno raises his eyebrows, remembering how Jaemin’s body had reacted to him yesterday.

“Even when _you_ might not want to. Your _body_ just does its thing,” Jaemin stresses, avoiding Jeno’s eyes. “So then do the same as you’d do when you want to get rid of a boner.”

 _Well_ , Jeno thinks, _that will not be an easy thing to do with you in the room._

He doesn’t say it, but the way Jaemin looks away from him and puts some distance between them makes him believe his best friend somehow can tell exactly what he’s thinking.

“But maybe go do that in your room. I need to get dressed.”

“Yeah, I should definitely go. If I stay here with you these fangs are never going to go away,” Jeno says, wishing Jaemin would meet his eyes. “Just…” He whispers, as his hand finds its way under the sleeve of Jaemin’s hoodie, exposing the skin on his forearm.

There, he finds the same bite mark he saw on Jaemin a few days ago, before he even started to suspect what his body was going through. It’s almost gone now, just a ghost of what was no doubt a good memory for Jaemin. 

Jeno looks at it wishing that was his mark. 

“Have you thought about it yet?” He asks Jaemin, running his thumb over the mark, feeling his friend’s pulse quickening with his touch.

“I…” Jaemin gulps. “I have.”

“Please say yes.”

“You still want to do it with me?” 

Jeno nods frantically. “I’m getting more desperate as the hours go by, to be honest.”

“I thought… when you saw them,” Jaemin nods to the door, meaning their friends who are currently hanging out in the living room. “You would realize every human smells the same and I’m not any better. Maybe you’d change your mind.”

“Were you hoping that would happen?”

Jaemin bites his lip instead of answering. Jeno keeps caressing the bite mark on the inside of his friend’s arm, relishing in the fact that only he knows this secret - only he knows how Jaemin likes to be bitten.

“They smell just as good as you, that’s true. I don’t think these would be out if they didn’t,” Jeno says, pointing at his fangs. “But none of them are you. I don’t really know what that means, I just know that I want it to be you.”

Jaemin gets a little flushed in his cheeks at that, and it’s beautiful the way he looks like that, how the glow it gives him has Jeno trapped in a daze.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes, let’s do it later when we get back home from dinner.”

\--

Mark’s birthday dinner is unbearable for a multitude of reasons. For the first time, Jeno is not hungry for any of the food on the table. It all tastes bad to his tongue and is strenuous to swallow. He still tries his best to pretend the food is delicious and manages to eat his whole plate - if only to give his mind something foul to concentrate on instead of all the blood pumping around him.

But more than that, it’s the distance that makes the whole thing unbearable: both the distance between him and Jaemin at the moment and the distance from this very moment and the time all of this is finally over and they can go home.

He’s split the whole dinner event into parts, ticking them off in his head as the evening progresses: arriving at the restaurant, ordering food, eating the food, blowing Mark’s candles, chatting for a few more hours over drinks, then, finally, going home. 

Maybe they might even be able to skip the drinks part if they can make a good enough excuse for that.

“You really can’t stay away from him for two seconds, can you?” Donghyuck’s voice brings him out of his thoughts. He looks at the younger with a frown. “If you stare at Jaemin for one more second I think you’ll pierce right through him.”

It’s not that he intentionally wants to look, but that Jaemin demands his attention just by being there. It’s the way he holds himself with a straight back and raised chin, commanding attention; the way he offers everyone around him a shining smile and has Jeno craving for one too. It’s the way he wears that white blazer over a white dress shirt like he’s the purest, most untainted rose in the field and Jeno can’t help but fantasize about what it’ll feel like to make him red.

He doesn’t say any of this to Donghyuck, though. To his friend, Jeno just shrugs and smiles, turning the conversation around by asking Donghyuck to elaborate on a story he had been trying to tell earlier.

Later, after they’ve brought out Mark’s birthday cake and they’re at the part of just sharing drinks, Jaemin comes up behind him and whisks away the glass of whiskey in Jeno’s hands.“Don’t drink,” he whispers into Jeno’s ear. “I want you sober when you feed on me.”

If Jeno were more human than he is now, he would have blushed. Instead, he just nods obediently and concentrates really hard on the foul taste of birthday cake so he can keep his fangs in.

\--

Jeno loves Jisung - he does. Yet, he still has an urge to murder the boy when he has the gall to ask Jaemin to give him a ride home at the end of the night.

With the soft spot that Jaemin has for him, Jisung knows Jaemin would never refuse him, not even if he lived in another city altogether. So that’s how the three of them all end up in Jaemin’s car, Jeno in the backseat with his arms crossed as he watches the both of them engaged in a cheerful conversation Jeno really has no patience to pay attention to.

He can’t help but smile from ear to ear when finally they pull up on Jisung’s driveway and the boy leaves. 

“You’re such a child sometimes, Lee Jeno,” Jaemin says as soon as Jeno gets on the front seat. “So impatient.”

There’s nothing he can say to defend himself, so Jeno opts for silence. 

As they make their way home, the tension between them starts growing. The air gets heavier as neither of them breaks the silence, neither of them really look each other in the eye for more than a second. As they get closer and closer to their home, it gets a little harder to breathe, and the smell of Jaemin’s blood gets stronger, louder.

Is it possible that Jaemin yearns for this as much as Jeno does? Could it be that the rush in his veins is caused by the thought of Jeno’s new fangs piercing through his skin? Or is he just scared to be crossing some kind of line with his vampire best friend?

When Jaemin closes their front door behind him, the heavy tension between them becomes unbearable, so much so that it has Jeno frozen in place. It’s just the two of them now, in their home, and the promise of something which Jeno has been dreaming about for hours.

“Let’s go to your room,” Jaemin cuts through the silence.

This time, Jeno’s fangs tickle his gums, as if asking him for permission to come out. He forces them to stay put for now.

“Why my bedroom?” 

“Because we might make a mess, and if that’s the case, then I’d rather do it on your bed than anywhere else in the house.”

Maybe Jeno should be a little offended at that, but he honestly can’t be bothered to. It makes sense, and the vampire doesn’t mind sacrificing his bedroom for something that is, ultimately, for his sake. 

He can’t help wondering what the mess Jaemin is foreshadowing would look like. It makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

Once they get inside his bedroom, Jaemin turns on the light on Jeno’s bedside table, leaving them with just enough light in the room to see each other, everything else remaining in almost complete darkness. 

While Jeno sits on the edge of the bed, Jaemin takes his white blazer jacket off. Jeno’s eyes are stuck on him as he slips his shirt off too, admiring the muscles of his torso moving under his toned skin, the way his blonde hair falls back over his forehead, framing his face perfectly.

“I don’t want us to ruin my shirt, that’s an expensive one,” Jaemin explains as he comes to sit next to Jeno on the bed.

“Should I take mine off too?” Jeno asks, getting surprised by how shaky his voice is.

Jaemin caresses his shoulder over his shirt before looking up at him with a grin. “If you want to. But you don’t have to, I think most of the mess we make will be on me.”

Jeno’ fangs come out at that, so fast that he doesn’t even feel them. It makes Jaemin giggle.

“Cute,” he says.

“Can you not call me cute when I’m about to bite you with my _fangs_?” 

Jaemin rolls his eyes but the smile on his lips betrays the gesture.

“You’ll know what to do once you start. Naturally, as if it’s been programmed on you and you just don’t know yet because you never tried.”

“Where do I…?”

Jaemin looks at him for a long moment, and Jeno is not sure if he’s imagining it or if he really can hear the tick of a clock somewhere in the distance, marking every second that Jaemin keeps him waiting.

“You wanted this, right?” Jaemin finally says, tilting his head to the side to display the length of his neck to the vampire. “It’s yours.”

“You…” Jeno whispers, hesitating in place. He’s not sure he heard that right. “Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t offer if I wasn’t.”

Jeno takes his time leaning in, flicking his eyes to Jaemin as if waiting for his best friend to change his mind. When Jaemin grips his arm and stops him halfway there, he thinks that’s it, but then Jaemin just says: 

“Take it slow, Jeno. Okay?”

“Okay, Nana.”

Jeno gets on his knees on the bed and positions himself behind Jaemin.

“Your saliva helps to take away the pain of the bite, so before you do it, can you just…hm...” Jaemin trails off, leaving a suggestion in the air between them which Jeno catches with ease.

He takes a moment to admire Jaemin’s bare neck, breathing so close to it that it makes Jaemin shiver. It burns so much that everything hurts. As if his whole body is screaming at him to rip into Jaemin and suck him dry. Yet, still, he leans down slowly, licks a path along the curve of his best friend’s neck with every hint of patience he can still find within himself. 

The delightful sweetness of Jaemin’s skin is the perfect starter. 

“I’m… I’m not sure how strong your saliva is yet, but I guess we will...” A gasp escapes Jaemin when Jeno runs his fangs gently over his skin. “Find out.”

“Mhm,” The vampire licks on the same spot again, then lets a trail of spit fall on Jaemin’s skin and plays around with it with his tongue. 

“That’s it, Jeno,” Jaemin says. “Just a little more.”

Jeno does as he’s told, smiling into Jaemin’s neck from the words of approval. He licks a trail up to the spot behind Jaemin’s ear, then back down - even though he won’t be biting him there, just because he’s curious to know what it feels like. Jaemin makes noises of pleasure as Jeno continues.

“Go on,” Jaemin finally says. “You can bite me now.”

Jeno doesn't need to hear it twice. He opens his mouth wide to bare his fangs, dripping his own saliva. One second he is closing his eyes, the next he’s ripping into Jaemin’s skin, warm blood oozing into his mouth as soon as he does so. Somewhere very far away he hears a loud cry but he doesn’t have it in himself to care - not when he’s being filled up like this.

His tongue is not the only part of him that is feasting on Jaemin’s blood - all his five senses are connected to it. He loses himself, implodes into something that is not connected to his body anymore.

“Slower, Jeno,” Jaemin’s voice pierces through his haze, the human’s hand gripping his thigh with enough strength to make the vampire hiss. “Make it… last. Yeah?” He continues, struggling to catch his breath.

Without ever letting go of Jaemin’s neck, Jeno slows down his rhythm. The change of pace makes it easier for him to come back down to himself, to hear Jaemin’s slowing heartbeat again, his erratic breathing, the stream of whimpers coming out of him.

Jeno opens his eyes hoping to get a look at Jaemin’s face, but from where he’s kneeling behind his best friend, he can only see the way his hands curl into fists on the bed sheets.

There’s a few drops of blood running down Jaemin’s chest. The vampire is not entirely in control of himself when he climbs onto Jaemin’s lap, knees on either side of him, to go chase after them. 

He slides his tongue from Jaemin’s belly all the way to his neck, not letting go even where the blood goes over Jaemin’s nipple. It doesn’t occur to him that he might be crossing a line. All he knows is Jaemin’s whimpers have gotten more frantic, and it’s so beautiful to his ears that he does it again - scrapes his fang over the hard nipple, takes into into his mouth, delights in the hint of pain that comes from Jaemin’s nails digging into his back. 

There’s more and more blood sliding down Jaemin’s neck since the bite is out in the open now, and although Jeno is tempted to go back to it, he chooses to take another moment to look Jaemin in the eye instead.

What he finds is a Jaemin he’s never seen before, flushed cheeks sprinkled with rubies, pupils blown out under hooded eyes. Out of both of them, Jaemin is the one who’s always calm and composed in every situation. But right now, he’s broken in the best of ways. All from Jeno’s bite, from Jeno’s tongue.

“Pretty,” Jeno drawls, getting closer to Jaemin’s lips. He wants to nibble at them, kiss them, but he knows his mouth tastes like iron to human Jaemin, so he hovers just a breath away from them, devours them in his imagination. 

He gives in after Jaemin brings him closer, slides his tongue over Jeno’s lips, taking a hint of his own blood with him. Jeno loses the grip on himself for the second time that night, yet this time it’s not just because of the blood, it’s because he can’t tell where his hunger for blood ends and his desire for his best friend begins. 

He falls into Jaemin’s lips with a sigh. It’s just a feel of each other’s warm skin, just a caress. When Jaemin pulls away, Jeno kisses his cheek softly, forgets, carried away by a completely new kind of warmth, that he’s supposed to be feeding.

He could kiss every inch of Jaemin for all of eternity.

“You think… I’m….pretty?” Jaemin asks.

Jeno hums against his cheek. 

“So fucking pretty, Nana.”

Jeno sits down on Jaemin’s lap and whimpers into his neck when he feels Jaemin’s hard cock against his ass, just as he hoped for. 

Jaemin thrusts into him at the same time as he sinks his human teeth on Jeno’s shoulder, gripping his arms for support. 

_Is this it?_ Jeno thinks as he sees the blood on Jaemin’s neck and chest, the blown-out look in his dark eyes, feels his best friend’s cock rocking against his ass. _Is this the mess Jaemin was talking about at the beginning?_

He doesn’t know anymore, where the line between drinking blood and just giving each other pleasure for the sake of it is; if there ever was a chance that they would not cross it. He doesn’t care to find it either.

“You’re hard for me again,” Jeno says, and this time Jaemin doesn’t hide or pretend it’s not true. He just nods, biting his already swollen lips. “Can you take your pants off, Nana? I want to see it.”

“Jeno…” Jaemin whispers, and there’s a hint of a warning in his voice, as if he’s making sure Jeno understands exactly what he wants him to do.

He shouldn’t want to see this much of his best friend, but the truth is that he does. He desperately wants to see that and so much more, and at this moment, he can't find one single reason why he shouldn’t at least try to.

Maybe Jaemin is also desperate for something. Maybe he’s too broken, too high, to understand what they’re getting into. He gives Jeno what he wants, unbuckles his belt with one hand, and strips his pants and boxers off in one go until he’s left standing there in front of Jeno in all but his black socks, shining in silver where blood isn’t gracing his skin.

He sits back down on the bed after Jeno gestures for him to come closer, and it’s the vampire who circles around him until he’s kneeling in front of Jaemin. 

Imagining what he must look like to Jaemin now makes him shudder. There’s blood dripping down his chin, scarlet hunger in his eyes - not just for blood, but for all of his best friend. Hunger to show him a new kind of pleasure.

Jeno snakes his hands over Jaemin’s knees up to his thighs, tries to pull them apart to make room for himself, but Jaemin resists.

“You don’t have to go this far, Jeno,” Jaemin sounds almost like his normal self. The stark contrast of the sobriety in his voice and the wrecked state of his body is sobering. “We don’t have to go _there_.”

Jeno holds Jaemin’s gaze for a long moment. He tries to find any trace of doubt in him about what he’s asking permission to do. When he finds none, he lays a string of kisses up the inside of Jaemin’s thigh, holding onto him with care. 

“We don’t have to,” he repeats, the words a dark slur. “But… can we?”

Jaemin throws his head back and invites Jeno in by parting his legs agonizingly slowly. The vampire comes in and makes himself at home. Jaemin’s hard cock is a hair’s breadth away from his mouth, and the intimacy of it accelerates his vampire pulse. 

As soon as he slides the length of his tongue over Jaemin, the other lets out a cat-like cry, making Jeno desperate to hear more. Careful not to scrape his fangs over Jaemin and cut his soft skin, Jeno plays around with his tongue on his best friend, feasting on the cries that keep coming out of him as if he’s been throbbing and aching to be touched for decades. 

At some point, Jaemin thrusts into Jeno’s mouth, and Jeno’s fangs almost cut him. 

“Looks like you’re all too keen on having my vampire mouth around your dick after all, uh, Nana?”

“Sh-shut up, J-Jeno.” 

Jeno laughs even as he takes Jaemin in his mouth again.

“Aren’t you... gonna... bite me...again?” Jaemin manages to ask between heavy breaths.

“How much more of your blood can I take?” 

“Just do it. I’ll… I’ll tell you when to stop.”

Jeno considers going back to Jaemin’s neck, but then his thighs are just there, clean slates for him to mark. Jeno doesn’t stand a chance: he takes them instead, bites on the inside, where minutes ago he had just worshipped them with kisses. Because, yes, worship is the only way to describe what Jeno wants to spend his vampire eternity doing - to be on his knees for Jaemin’s blood, Jaemin’s pleasure, Jaemin’s every will and whim. 

He takes and takes, expecting Jaemin to tell him to pull away at any moment. But although Jaemin’s movements and moans have become more languid, even though there’s more strain in his breaths, he’s making no move to pull away. 

Jeno closes the wound with a lick of his saliva and dives back on Jaemin’s other thigh. This time Jaemin’s muscles tense more and more under his lips, his pulse slowing down dangerously.

Jaemin grabs a fistful of Jeno’s hair but doesn’t pull on it, as if he’s just grabbing Jeno for support, to have a part of the vampire in his hands, under his control.

“Jen…Jen… I--” He whispers, a hint of desperation in his voice, and finally pulls on Jeno’s hair - not to push him away but to hold him steady in place. “Don’t stop. I think I’m gonna--” 

Jeno gets a rush of blood in his throat as Jaemin’s pulse quickens despite how weakened it has become. Without warning, he rips Jeno’s mouth from his thigh, making the vampire’s neck contort backward, mouth open and dripping with Jaemin’s blood. When Jeno opens his eyes he’s met with the sight of Jaemin coming all over his bedroom floor.

Jeno’s own cock is aching and begging for Jaemin inside his pants, but he ignores it in favor of rushing to stop the blood coming out of his third bite, knowing - even though Jaemin never told him to stop - that his best friend has already let him take too much.

Jaemin drops onto the bed on his back, arms open at his sides. Jeno climbs over him and Jaemin finds his gaze even before they are at eye level, as if he, too, had been searching for his best friend but simply didn’t have the energy to move anymore. Once Jeno is on all fours on top of him, face hovering above Jaemin’s, he brushes away the hairs sticking to Jaemin’s face with sweat, traces a finger over the wound of the first bite on his neck. 

“How do you feel?” Jeno worries.

“I’m fucking spent. I’m in awe.” Jeno is still looking down at him with concern, not sure if the words are good or not. “I’m great, Jeno.”

Then, almost in slow motion, Jaemin props himself up on his elbows and kisses him on the cheek.

Somehow, even after everything that had gone down between them tonight, the innocence of the gesture lights Jeno up with a fire that burns hotter than any bloodlust ever could.

He doesn’t know what to say, or how to react to Jaemin now, so he looks around and assesses the damage of their endeavor. 

“This has never happened to me before,” Jaemin breaks the silence with a croaky voice. He’s staring at a fixed point in the ceiling. “Coming just from a bite.”

“That’s good, right?”

“ _God,_ I _\--_ I don’t know.”

“Wha--”

“Can you check the bites again? See if any are still bleeding?”

Jeno does as he’s told, checking carefully, caressing the skin around the gashes as if it might break. He finds nothing still bleeding.

“Can you stand up?” Jaemin grunts in response. Jeno slides a hand under his back and helps him up. 

_How unfair_ , he thinks _, that where you’re weaker, I’m stronger._

He carries the human to the bathroom in silence, setting him on top of the toilet before getting to work on fixing a bath for them.

He doesn’t think to ask Jaemin permission to bathe together. They’ve done this so many times in the past before that he doesn’t even realize, maybe after what just happened, getting undressed in front of his best friend and climbing into a hot bath with him is no longer something so innocent - not until he’s already stripping his pants and Jaemin is grunting again.

“Jeno,” Jaemin mumbles his name, not really calling for him, more like in a resigned sigh. “You ruined me. You _ruined me.”_ He keeps repeating as Jeno helps him to the bathtub, cussing in Jeno’s ear.

“I made you feel good.” 

“You did.”

They get in the bathtub facing each other, legs fitting together instinctively.

“Fuck you, Lee Jeno. Fuck you,” Jaemin continues, his words still dragging, his eyes unfocused. He tries to lean back on the bathtub but Jeno pulls him closer to wipe at the places where blood has dried on his skin.

“Maybe next time I will.”

“I swear, once I get my strength back, I’m gonna kick you. Don’t even dare pout at me, that just makes me want to kick you more. I fucking hate you so much.”

“Tell me why you’re cursing me, then. I’ll try to make it up to you.”

“You just… ruined me.”

“You said that already.”

Jaemin glares at him. 

“How did I ruin you?” 

Jeno takes extra care to wipe the blood around Jaemin’s neck wound, tries to make it feel more like a caress than anything else. Seeing the mark of his teeth on his best friend is both chilling and thrilling.

“You just…”

“Tell me, Nana.”

“No one’s ever gonna be as good to me as you,” Jaemin’s confession lights a fire in Jeno’s chest. “I’ll compare everyone to you now. Vampire or not,” he says, looking down at the bubbles of soap on the water, munching on his lower lip. 

The next thing he says, he does so as if talking to himself. “Whatever, it’s not like I didn’t do it before already.”

Jeno remembers something that’s been on his mind ever since the night at the club, a question Johnny put in his mind.

“Jaemin, when did you first realize you were into vampires?” 

Jaemin snaps his head up at the question. “It was on Halloween night, when we were fifteen,” Jaemin swallows dry. “We met up with everyone at Johnny’s house, and you had been away with your family that weekend so I didn’t see you until I got to the party. I was looking everywhere for you, I wanted to show you my stupid costume, but when I saw you I forgot about everything.”

“That was when I dressed up as a--”

“A vampire.”

Jeno forgets to breathe.

“All this time, you weren’t even a real vampire, but I still looked for you in all the ones I met. God, what am I saying? Why am I telling you this?” Jaemin hides behind his hands.

“But I _am_ becoming a vampire now. You don’t have to compare anyone to me if you have me, and,” Jeno gulps, preparing himself for what he’s about to say, “Even before, I might not have been able to bite you but… who are we kidding? I was already yours.”

Jaemin’s face softens at Jeno’s confession, and he tries to suppress a smile from his lips.

“I think we were afraid to cross a line that was just holding us back, Nana,” Jeno says. “This is who we are.”

Jaemin falls into his arms, nuzzles his head in the curve of Jeno’s neck and shoulder. 

“I would’ve taken human Jeno over any vampire, any day. I would’ve taken you over _anyone_. In fact, I _did_. That’s why after all this time, it’s still just you and me.”

Jeno smiles so wide his eyes are hidden in crescent moons. 

He holds onto Jaemin tighter.

“Just you and me, Nana. Forever, just like we promised when we first met.” 

“For me, forever. For you, as long as I’m alive will do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy halloween!! please leave me a comment if you enjoy and I'll love you forever <3
> 
> you can also find this fic + more aus on my twitter [@afterwordmin](https://twitter.com/afterwordmin)

**Author's Note:**

> I will post a chapter per day more or less, and this ends on Halloween~~
> 
> I'm also posting this on twitter. Come say hi? [@afterwordmin](https://twitter.com/afterwordmin)


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